- Enforcing jurisdiction
- Ireland · Geography does not establish applicable law.
- Confirmed applicable legislation
- Privacy topics
Irish Teacher Council – €60,000 Fine (Ireland, 2021)
Privacy enforcement record
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The Irish Teacher Council was fined €60,000 for a data breach that exposed personal information of nearly 10,000 people. This incident shows that organizations must take data protection seriously to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information. Small businesses should ensure they have strong security measures in place.
What happened
The Irish Teaching Council failed to protect personal data, resulting in a data breach where 323 emails were forwarded to an unauthorized account.
Who was affected
9,735 individuals whose personal data was included in the emails accessed by unauthorized parties.
What the authority found
The Data Protection Commission found that the Council did not implement adequate security measures to protect personal data, violating GDPR requirements.
Why this matters
This case highlights the importance of data security for all organizations. Small businesses must prioritize protecting personal information to avoid costly fines and reputational damage.
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Automated check recorded — 12 March 2026.
Processing notes: articles corrected, national law identified.
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The Irish DPA has imposed a fine of EUR 60,000 on the Irish Teaching Council. The Council notified the DPA of a data breach under Art. 33 of the GDPR. Accordingly, two employees of the Council accessed a phishing email that allowed them to set up an automatic forwarding system from their email accounts to a malicious email account. As a result, 323 emails were forwarded to the unauthorized external email address between February 17, 2020 and March 6, 2020. The emails contained the personal data of 9,735 data subjects and the sensitive personal data of one data subject. The DPA therefore found that the Council had failed to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of protection for data subjects' personal data commensurate with the risk. In addition, the DPA found that the Council failed to report the data breach in a timely manner.
Related Enforcement Actions (0)
No other enforcement actions found for Irish Teacher Council in IE
This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Irish Teacher Council - Ireland (2021). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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